Three Kinds of Comprehension Question
School comprehension papers keep asking the same three kinds of question, and each one needs a slightly different skill. The questions on this page are labelled so your child learns to recognise them.
- Find it. The answer is written in the passage. The skill is going back to the right sentence instead of answering from memory. “What did Mei buy at the market?”
- Think about it. The answer is suggested, not stated: how a character feels, why something happened, what will probably happen next. The clue is still in the text. “Why did Arjun walk slowly to the front of the class?”
- Word meaning. What a word or phrase means in this passage. Children work it out from the sentence around it, the way good readers do with new words. “What does ‘reluctantly’ tell us about Siti?”
A Worked Example
Here is how a good reader handles a thinking question. In one of the P2 passages, Wei Jie’s grandmother tells him to try something new at the hawker centre. The passage then says: “Wei Jie walked slowly past the stalls. At last, he chose a bowl of laksa.” The question asks why he walked slowly.
- Find the place in the passage. The words “walked slowly” appear in one sentence, so read that sentence and the ones around it.
- Look for the clue. The sentence before is Grandma asking him to try something new; the sentence after says “At last, he chose”. “At last” tells us the choosing took a while.
- Check each choice against the text. “He was very tired” is not mentioned anywhere. “He was looking for Grandma” makes no sense, because Grandma was with him. “He was choosing a new dish” fits every clue.
That is the whole skill in three steps, and it works the same way for a P6 passage about a nervous debate captain as for a P2 passage about laksa. The highlight on this page shows your child step 1 after every wrong answer; the evidence activity makes them do it themselves.
How to Use This Page
- Pick the school year and an activity, then how many passages, and press Start.
- Read the passage. Younger children can press “Read to me” to hear it, with each sentence highlighted as it is read.
- Read and answer: choose an answer and press Check. If it is wrong, the right answer is shown and the sentence that proves it is highlighted in yellow.
- Find the evidence: tap the sentence in the passage that answers the question. This is the habit that wins marks in longer school passages.
- Fix the ones you missed at the end, with the passage still there to look back at.
Passages by Level
| Level | Passages | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| P1 | 40–75 words, short simple sentences, large print | 3 questions with 3 choices: mostly finding facts, one simple “why” |
| P2 | 70–115 words in two paragraphs | 3 questions with 3 choices, more thinking questions |
| P3 | 110–165 words: stories, facts, notices | 4 questions with 4 choices, including word meaning |
| P4 | 150–215 words in three paragraphs | 4 questions: facts, feelings and reasons, word meaning |
| P5 | 200–270 words, richer vocabulary | 4 questions, more inference |
| P6 | 240–330 words, PSLE-style stories and articles | 4 questions on motives, feelings, the writer’s meaning and vocabulary |
Each level has eight passages: stories, information texts, and notices, letters, diary entries or emails. The page shows passages your child has not seen yet first, so a few rounds a week work through them all.
Tips for Parents and Teachers
- Always ask “Where does it say that?” Pointing to the sentence is the single most useful comprehension habit, and it is what the highlight on this page trains.
- Read the questions first on longer passages. From P4 up, a quick look at the questions tells your child what to look out for while reading.
- Talk about feelings. For thinking questions, ask how your child would feel in the character’s place, then find the words that show it.
- Guess, then check. For a new word, cover the choices, guess the meaning from the sentence, then see which choice is closest.
- Little and often. One passage a day beats a long paper once a week. Our sentence builder and spelling test maker cover grammar and spelling the same way.
Nothing to Install, Nothing Stored on Our Server
The practice runs entirely in your browser on any phone, tablet or computer. There is no account and no download. The last level and activity you chose, and which passages your child has read, are remembered on this device, and nothing about your child’s answers is sent to us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ask your child to find the sentence in the text that proves each answer. Most comprehension mistakes come from answering from memory or guessing instead of going back to the text. Short daily practice with one passage, followed by talking about the answer together, works better than long sessions.
An inference question asks for something the text suggests but does not say in so many words, such as how a character feels, why something happened, or what will probably happen next. The answer still comes from clues in the text, so children should point to the sentence that gave them the idea.
Start at your child’s school year. P1 and P2 passages are short with three questions; P3 and P4 add questions on word meaning; P5 and P6 are longer and closer to PSLE-style comprehension with more inference. If your child gets almost everything right, try the next level up.
Yes. There is no account, no download and no limit on rounds. It works in any browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and nothing about your child’s answers is sent to us.